Hong Kong Dragon Garden

Hong Kong Dragon Garden, usually known simply as Dragon Garden (龍圃), is a large private Chinese landscaped garden at 32–42 Castle Peak Road in Tsing Lung Tau, Tsuen Wan, in Hong Kong’s New Territories. Businessman and philanthropist Lee Iu-cheung acquired the hillside site in 1949 and spent approximately two decades developing it into an elaborate garden estate. Construction began during the 1950s, with architectural work associated with the Chinese architect Chu Pin, and the completed complex combines references to the imperial architecture of Beijing with elements derived from the Song, Ming and Qing dynasties. Its buildings and landscaped grounds incorporate Confucian, Buddhist and Taoist symbolism alongside some Western influences and include pavilions, ponds, bridges, ceremonial gateways, a swimming pool, a substantial villa, a domed mausoleum and the stone dragon fountain from which the garden takes its name. Dragon Garden was threatened with redevelopment in 2006 but was subsequently preserved and designated a Grade II historic building.

Hong Kong Dragon Garden has appeared in I Spy (1965), The Peking Medallion (1967), The Last Grenade (1970), Men of the Dragon (1974), The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), The Head Hunter (1982), Noble House (1988) and Shadow of China (1989). Its villa, swimming pool, ornamental ponds, gateways, terraces, mausoleum and extensive gardens have represented the homes and headquarters of wealthy businessmen and criminal leaders, an island fortress and, most famously, the Bangkok estate of Hai Fat in the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun.

In I Spy (1965), Dragon Garden appears in “Carry Me Back to Old Tsing Tao”, episode 3 of the first season. Kelly Robinson, played by Robert Culp, and Alexander Scott, played by Bill Cosby, are in Hong Kong negotiating with Charlie Huan, played by Philip Ahn, an elderly Chinese-American businessman and former criminal who wants to settle more than a million dollars in unpaid American taxes before returning to Taiwan. The payment presents an unusual problem because much of his wealth is contained in a solid-gold stove, while his sons-in-law have no intention of allowing the fortune to disappear. Dragon Garden is among the Hong Kong locations used during the episode and is shown at the beginning of the story, providing an early screen record of the estate almost a decade before it became internationally recognisable through The Man with the Golden Gun. The garden’s stone dragon ornament, later visible in several other productions filmed there, can also be seen.

In The Peking Medallion (1967), also released as The Corrupt Ones, Dragon Garden provides the swimming pool at the headquarters of Tina, the ruthless triad leader played by Nancy Kwan. Tina is introduced while swimming, with the distinctive curved red handrail beside the steps into the pool identifying the location as Dragon Garden. The sequence is particularly interesting because the rest of Tina’s gang headquarters was not filmed there. Ching Chun Koon in Tuen Mun provides the principal exterior of the compound, meaning the fictional headquarters is assembled from two separate New Territories locations. Dragon Garden is therefore used specifically for Tina’s pool scene rather than for the entire criminal estate.

In The Last Grenade (1970), Dragon Garden appears during the Hong Kong section of the story involving Major Harry Grigsby, played by Stanley Baker, and his former comrade and eventual enemy Kip Thompson, played by Alex Cord. Grigsby has been sent to Hong Kong to eliminate Thompson, who is creating incidents along the border with China, while Grigsby also becomes involved with Katherine Whiteley, played by Honor Blackman, the wife of his British military liaison General Charles Whiteley. One sequence begins with Katherine travelling by taxi along Castle Peak Road towards the entrance to Dragon Garden. The estate’s distinctive red gateway is seen as she arrives, after which filming continues unmistakably inside the property. The orange-and-gold-roofed villa, ornamental structures and Chinese gateways on the upper terraces are shown, together with views from the hillside towards Ma Wan. The film was shot in Hong Kong during 1969 but released in 1970.

In Men of the Dragon (1974), Dragon Garden forms a substantial part of the private island fortress belonging to Balashev, played by Joseph Wiseman. The television film follows martial artists Jan Kimbro, played by Jared Martin, and Li-Teh, played by Robert Ito, as they attempt to rescue Jan’s sister Lisa, played by Katie Saylor, after she is abducted by a criminal organisation involved in trafficking women. Dragon Garden supplies Balashev’s villa and much of his elaborate compound. The characters pass the stone dragon beside the ornamental pond and move through the Chinese pai fang gateway towards the domed mausoleum, while the villa’s ornate front doors and the views across the property towards Ma Wan are also clearly shown. Balashev and Lisa are seen together in front of the mausoleum, and the garden is later used during the climax, when Jan and Li-Teh are forced into a blindfolded martial-arts fight before their allies arrive and the confrontation develops into a larger battle. The production also used Palm Villa in Tai Tam for other portions of Balashev’s fictional island, so the fortress seen on screen is assembled from more than one Hong Kong estate.

In The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), Dragon Garden represents the Bangkok estate of wealthy industrialist Hai Fat, played by Richard Loo. James Bond, played by Roger Moore, travels to Thailand while investigating the death of solar-energy specialist Gibson and suspects that Hai Fat may have employed the assassin Francisco Scaramanga. Bond disguises himself as Scaramanga, complete with a false third nipple, and secretly enters Hai Fat’s heavily guarded estate. He climbs over the wall and encounters Chew Mee swimming naked in Dragon Garden’s pool before being confronted by Hai Fat and his guards. The production makes extensive use of the grounds as Bond moves along the garden paths past the stone dragon, ornamental bridge and statues before entering the villa. Bond initially convinces Hai Fat that he is Scaramanga and is invited to return for dinner, but Hai Fat later reveals that he knows the real assassin and has Bond captured. Dragon Garden was filmed entirely as a substitute for Thailand despite being in Hong Kong, while the martial-arts school to which Bond is subsequently taken was filmed separately at Muang Boran, or Ancient Siam, near Bangkok. The estate is one of Dragon Garden’s most extensive screen appearances and helped make its swimming pool, red gateway and ornamental gardens internationally recognisable.

In The Head Hunter (1982), Dragon Garden is used as the residence of a senior criminal figure above the immediate employer of Yuen Lik, played by Chow Yun-fat. Yuen is a former Vietnam War soldier who returns to Hong Kong and becomes a contract killer, while reporter Vickie Lee, played by Rosamund Kwan, investigates the killings taking place around him. Yuen receives his assignments through a criminal superior, but the film reveals that this man is himself taking orders from an even more powerful boss. Dragon Garden provides the wealthy boss’s secluded home, using the elaborate estate to visually establish another level in the hierarchy controlling Yuen’s work.

In Noble House (1988), Dragon Garden represents the home of wealthy businessman Philip Chen, played by John Houseman, and appears prominently in the first episode of the four-part miniseries. After Philip’s son John Chen is kidnapped, Ian Dunross, played by Pierce Brosnan, is summoned to the family residence. Dunross walks through the grounds along the same garden path used by Roger Moore as James Bond fourteen years earlier in The Man with the Golden Gun before entering the villa for a meeting with Philip Chen and the Chief Inspector of the Royal Hong Kong Police. The sequence provides particularly clear views of both the gardens and the main house, which had been shown less prominently in the Bond film. Dragon Garden also returns later in the episode when Philip runs through the grounds. Some interiors were filmed within the real villa as well, making Noble House one of the productions to use both the exterior landscape and the residence itself.

In Shadow of China (1989), Dragon Garden represents the home of Lee Hok Chow, played by Roy Chiao, the principal business rival of Henry, played by John Lone. Henry is a Chinese political refugee who has reinvented himself as an ambitious businessman in Hong Kong, gradually abandoning the radical ideals of his youth as he fights for wealth and influence. Unlike productions that concentrate on Dragon Garden’s Chinese gateways, statues and ornamental ponds, Shadow of China focuses particularly on the lower residential portion of the property. The swimming pool, circular terrace and villa behind it are clearly shown as part of Lee Hok Chow’s home, reusing several of the same areas that had represented Hai Fat’s estate in The Man with the Golden Gun fifteen years earlier.

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